24 Jan 2019

The country’s oldest club football cup competition, known previously as the FA Challenge Cup, and for sponsorship reasons the Lion Cup and later the Coca Cola Cup, has now made a return after a six year hiatus.

Now known as the Orange FA Cup, the competition includes lower division sides who will kick-start the tournament in February.

During the draw held at the Gaborone Bus Rank on Wednesday, Botswana Football Association (BFA) acting head of competition, Setete Phuthego said 48 teams would be involved, with 32 sides from the First Division and regional leagues slugging it out in the first round.

The winning 16 teams from that first round will meet the 16 premier league sides in the second round making a total of 32 teams vying for a chance to proceed to the third round.

Phuthego revealed that teams were selected according to how they finished the 2017-18 season.

He gave the example that a team such as Notwane, which in the present 2018-19 campaign are a premier league side, would play in the initial stage as they were a First Division team the previous season.

The first round of matches will be played on the weekend of February 16-17 followed by others on the weekend of February 23-24.  The draw was divided into two blocks of teams from the north and the south of Dibete

Representing the sponsor, Lebogang “Ace” Moruti of Orange said they were pleased to be involved in a tournament that involved teams from lower divisions, including rural areas, as it would assist in the development of players and give them exposure when they faced premier league sides in the later stages.

He reminded football fans that Orange had previously been involved in sponsoring the national football team, including in 2012 when the Zebras participated in their only African Cup of Nations to date.

Notwane, who won the tournament three times in 1995, 1997 and 2006 during its previous incarnation as the Coca Cola Cup, and before that in 1978 during its earlier years, are drawn away to Blue Stars. END